Scope of Constants

Symbolic constants defined in Constant Blocks are global to the object in which they are defined but not outside of that object. This means that constants can be accessed directly from anywhere within the object but their name will not conflict with symbols defined in other parent or child objects.

Symbolic constants can be indirectly accessed by parent objects, however, by using the constant reference syntax. 

Example:

OBJ
  Num : "Numbers" 

PUB SomeRoutine
  Format := Num#DEC 'Set Format to Number's Decimal constant 

Here an object, "Numbers," is declared as the symbol Num. Later, a method refers to numbers' DEC constant with Num#DEC. Num is the object reference, # indicates we need to access that object's constants, and DEC is the constant within the object we need. This feature allows objects to define constants for use with themselves and for parent objects to access those constants freely without interfering with any symbols they created themselves.